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Henry Fortunato, KU History Project Creator, Born

Sunday, January 8, 1956

Henry Fortunato, the creator of kuhistory.com, entered the world January 8, 1956, on Long Island, New York. Serendipity had him become a native of Kansas, a student of KU and, ultimately, the narrator of this popular institutional history.

At the time of the founding of the project in 1999, the richness of KU history was not so apparent. Working with the KU Memorial Union, Henry crafted a compelling communal narrative, artfully captured and told. The task required a guild of shrewd archivists, researchers, writers, designers and web masters to bring the story to vivid life.

The project spoke not only to Jayhawks. The KU History Project spurred imitations at universities around the country. Henry went on to employ the same creativity and ingenuity in a similar project for the Kansas City Public Library, culminating in the library receiving the ALA 2014 Excellence in Library Programming Award.

A dedicated walker, Henry will continue to walk among us through the images and words of this remarkable website.